Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on June 2, 2014 by Allahpundit

A Pentagon investigation concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military decided not to exert extraordinary efforts to rescue him, according to a former senior defense official who was involved in the matter…

Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters “will be dealt with later,” Hagel said…

Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar: “This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.”

***

At a private Army promotion ceremony in Washington in late 2012, a general discussed how he and a subordinate officer had helped lead search efforts in eastern Afghanistan with an infantry battalion at the time Bergdahl disappeared. “He left our organization and went over to the other side,” the general told the small audience at the closed reception, which was attended by an ABC News reporter…

A former senior military Special Forces advisor who was in Afghanistan and directly involved in efforts to mount a rescue mission for Bergdahl told ABC News there was anger and frustration after Bergdahl’s capture because soldiers were being asked to risk their lives to save a man who allegedly “was disillusioned and walked off base.”…

The Special Forces operator who spoke to ABC News said his team near Kabul was sent to the decrepit outpost near Ghazni to “stir up intel” on Bergdahl’s whereabouts.

“When he left he had his knife, his compass, his bottle of water. That’s what the 25th Infantry Division guys said to us,” the Special Forces operator told ABC News Sunday. “We were all pissed off. We were going to go out there and search every building to find this kid.”

Texas Representative Mac Thornberry, vice chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said: “The president violated a provision of law in not giving Congress advanced notice. And while you can always argue that, ‘well, this was an emergency, he needed to act quickly,’ this pattern of violating the law is also a danger to national security.”…

A source close to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s palace in Kabul said Karzai was angry at being kept in the dark about the deal. “The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country,” said the source, who declined to be identified.

***

Mullah Mohammad Fazl, the Taliban’s deputy defense minister, is so senior in the Taliban hierarchy that he once threatened the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar. Fazl has “operational associations with significant al-Qaida and other extremist personnel,” and “If released, [Fazl] would likely rejoin the Taliban and establish ties with anti-Coalition militias (ACM) participating in hostilities against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan.”…

Mullah Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, once the Taliban’s interior minister, was “directly associated to Usama Bin Laden (UBL) and Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Muhammad Omar” and was “trusted and respected by both.” After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he “represented the Taliban during meetings with Iranian officials seeking to support hostilities against US and Coalition forces” and “attended a meeting at the direction of UBL, reportedly accompanied by members of HAMAS.” He is “one of the premier opium drug lords in Western Afghanistan” and was likely “associated with a militant training camp in Herat operated by deceased al-Qaida commander (in Iraq) Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.”…

The argument will be made that he wasn’t worth saving, especially given what we had to give up. Hastings cites “White House sources” as telling him that Marc Grossman, Richard Holbrooke’s successor as AfPak coordinator, “was given a direct warning by the president’s opponents in Congress about trading Bowe for five Taliban prisoners during an election year. ‘They keep telling me it’s going to be Obama’s Willie Horton moment,’ Grossman warned the White House.”

Can Republicans make this resonate outside their base? Hard to say. I think to most Americans, this is a feel-good story. We value a life, one American life. Bibi Netanyahu traded one captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, not for five Palestinian prisoners. He traded Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. And there was broad agreement across the spectrum of Israeli politics that bringing Shalit to safety, even at that price, was the right thing to do.

But of course, that doesn’t matter to the right. No one outside their base cares much about Benghazi, but that hasn’t stopped them. They’ll keep pursuing Benghazi mostly to see if they can pin anything on Hillary, but when it comes to wet impeachment dreams, Benghazi may have just been pushed to the back seat. The crazy never stops.

***

“It gets really hurtful when I think, this guy was worth my son’s life? My son who was patriotic? Who was a true soldier? Who defended his country with his life?” Andrews told Army Times via phone on Monday. “That guy was worth that? I don’t think so.”

Andrews also was upset to hear the U.S. government agreed to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bergdahl’s freedom.

“I bet you anything there were soldiers killed or wounded capturing those five guys,” she said. “So what does that do for their sacrifice? They sacrificed for nothing, because they turned right around and let them go.”

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Some people are like magpies and have no respect for others. Obama is one of them… but they abound and are as common as dust.

thatsafactjack on June 2, 2014 at 11:20 PM

obama is maggot to the nation.

For the idiots who comment on TV, or here, about “wait and see for the rest of the story”, you are lame and have been asleep at the switch. This story is 5 years old and it was known by some of us on day one that the guy walked off, drunk, and thought he was joining the Taliban, to “help them right the children of Afghanistan”. When the defector realized that he ended up with the Haqqanis, who scrooomed and terrorized him better than the Taliban, he want to “go home”, the bastard. Meanwhile 6 families are missing their dads/husbands, because of him.

I hope that he and obama both get tried for treason. You swine who live in obama’s azz, you should die of choking from eating his shit. Tomasky, you first, you incredible turkey.

Have you ever checked out the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas? The Grassy Knoll? I found it very intriguing. There was a second shooter. I could have made the shot from the grassy knoll. I can shoot, but I am no marksman. Check it out.

This is from people who were there, and who followed up immediately. The only thing missing from this article is the fact that they had to sign non-disclosure agreements. However, now they have lawyers and are talking, much to the chagrin of the treasonous oaf, who’s chief. These are not all Soldiers either.

Bergdahl and his family, sound just like Nidal Hassan of the Ft. Hood terrorist attack.

If he did indeed desert and collaborate, he should be court marshaled and either imprisoned for the rest of his life or put to death. The latter is fine by me if he rabbited. I hear firing squad still works quite well.

Nope. We’ll hit a few museums.
annoyinglittletwerp on June 2, 2014 at 11:33 PM

Have you ever checked out the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas? The Grassy Knoll? I found it very intriguing. There was a second shooter. I could have made the shot from the grassy knoll. I can shoot, but I am no marksman. Check it out.
KCB on June 2, 2014 at 11:39 PM

I was in Dealey Plaza back in 1978…it looked just like the news reels…

Have you even watched magpies? They steal everything that attracts their attention, taking it back to their nest and claiming it as their own. Generally loners, they will gather in flocks and attack other birds, attempting to drive them from the habitat.

Most importantly, they are oblivious to how pernicious they are, how destructive their activities become, until the other birds, in turn, grow weary of them and drive them out of their habitat once and for all.

The magpies cannot co-exist peacefully. It’s not in their nature.

Obama is very much a magpie, and so are those who support him and his agenda.

This is from people who were there, and who followed up immediately. The only thing missing from this article is the fact that they had to sign non-disclosure agreements. However, now they have lawyers and are talking, much to the chagrin of the treasonous oaf, who’s chief. These are not all Soldiers either.

Schadenfreude on June 2, 2014 at 11:41 PM

Schadenfreude: I love this part, as if I’m shocked about Hopey:)

The Obama Administration seemed either unable or unwilling to put forth any attempt to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl – especially as it would mean violating Pakistani sovereignty, something similar to the bin Laden raid, which would require a presidential decision.

Have you even watched magpies? They steal everything that attracts their attention, taking it back to their nest and claiming it as their own. Generally loners, they will gather in flocks and attack other birds, attempting to drive them from the habitat.

Most importantly, they are oblivious to how pernicious they are, how destructive their activities become, until the other birds, in turn, grow weary of them and drive them out of their habitat once and for all.

The magpies cannot co-exist peacefully. It’s not in their nature.

Obama is very much a magpie, and so are those who support him and his agenda.

thatsafactjack on June 2, 2014 at 11:46 PM

Isn’t there a movement in one of Beethoven’s symphonies called “The Thieving Magpie”?

Ok, here goes…
1) I’m a hospitalist. I do not have an office. The hospital uses direct education from a nutritionist and other therapists along with videos the patient can access on the hospital network through their TV in the room. In addition, the nurses will instruct on insulin dosing, bandage changing, etc.

2) The hospital does telephone followups. They do have a website, but it is general information about the hospital with contact information for the various departments–I don’t think it is particularly interactive, although there is some patient information on there in static documents.

3) See 2 above–there are a variety of things you can do on the patient side of the website, but since again I am a hospitalist, I don’t see it much and I don’t interact with it at all. I treat people in the hospital and then send them back to their primary doctors, if they have one. I have not perused the patient portal in great detail, so there may be more to it than I am giving them credit for…

The kid seems nuts and didn’t fall far from the tree. I would like to know how he managed to desert and get promotions. This administration seems to slap our vets in the face at every opportunity.

Cindy Munford on June 2, 2014 at 11:46 PM

I’s also like to know if
he was a jihady before he went to AfCrapistan ? or the taliParents did that to him after he landed there ?
Somehow, I find it hard to believe that this family suddenly became jihadies after the war started .

Many thanks, Doc. I’d love to chat, but I’m a pretty pissy mood. Just wound up tighter than a top right now.

If I run into other questions, do you mind too terribly if I send them your way?

lineholder on June 2, 2014 at 11:59 PM

Feel free, although recognize the answers may be delayed as I am on call…:)

Most of the portal stuff I have heard about is being used at the office level for communication and scheduling–a truly interactive portal at the hospital level is not something I have heard to much about. I hope that helps….